The Knife's Edge
by Lonesoldier
Summary: The story of a Tau Shas'vre and a human conscript, who have a strange commonality. Rating is for violence, please review.
1. Primer on the Tau

Disclaimer: Warhammer 40K is the property of Games Workshop, not me, though if they gave the rights to me I wouldn't complain. No money was made by writing this fan-fiction so there is no need to sue me.  
  
This is just a brief primer on the alien race called the Tau. They are blue skinned, about as tall as humans and have a nasal cavity, which is like a line from their foreheads to the point between their eyes, it is less than an inch wide and less than an inch deep.  
  
The Tau are very technologically advanced, even when compared to the Imperium.  
  
Terminology:  
  
Castes:  
  
Shas: Fire caste, they are warriors.  
  
Kor: Air caste, they are pilots, crew and captains.  
  
Por: Water caste, they are traders, scientists and the media.  
  
Fio: Earth caste, they are workers, architects and engineers.  
  
Aun: Ethereal caste, they are the leaders of the Tau race.  
  
Suffixs:  
  
'la: Entry level, line warriors, crewmen and workers form this caste.  
  
'ui: Experienced.  
  
'vre: Very Experienced, Shas'vre's pilot Crisis/Broadside suits and Kor'vre are fighter pilots.  
  
'el: Generals, these people lead armies and command ships.  
  
'o: Hero level, they are living legends.  
  
Words:  
  
Fio'tak: Tau armour and suits are made of this stuff; it is very strong.  
  
Kor'vesa: Drones, controlled by AIs. They stick to their controller.  
  
Mont'au: The Terror, the time peroid before the Ethereals united the Tau.  
  
Tau'va: The Greater Good, basically one's people before oneself. By being dedicated to the Tau'va, Tau can stop from slipping into their Mont'au state.  
  
Por'hui: The media of the Tau race, basically all information is relayed through this system.  
  
Gue'la: Humans.  
  
Trial by Fire: Fire caste where the people involved gain a rank. They occur every 4 years of a fire warrior's career.  
  
Crisis suit: A (approx.) 14 feet high mecha, piloted by a shas'vre or higher. They are equipped with jump jets and an devastating array of weaponry.  
  
Railguns: Magnetic forces accelerate a metal slug to hyper velocity and fire it with incredible force. These railgun rounds, can cut through multiple troops, or easily puncture a Land Raider (Heavy Tank).  
  
Broadside suit: Mounts twin railguns, is used for mobile artillery purposes. Broadsides are a little taller than Crisis suits but do not have jump jets.  
  
Stealth suit: A suit that bends light waves around itself to effectivly cloak the wearer from enemy vision. The suit is usually a perfect fit on most fire warriors. It is the size of a fire warrior, not large like a crisis or broadside.  
  
Of course any Tau player or Warhammer 40K background info buff would know these things off the top of his head. Would you believe me if I told you I wrote this entire thing with out ever referring to the rulebook or Codexes? 


	2. Shas'vre Aurl'ni Tao Kao

The Knife's Edge:  
  
Shas'vre Tao Kao scanned the field of battle for his opponents. The scanners built into the VX88 'Crisis' Suit inputted the data into his retinal monofibers, or contacts that can display data. Tao brought his Crisis Suit into a low hover and jetted forward. The Suit's right shoulder mounted missile pod let loose a pair of missiles as Tao caressed the trigger. The deadly duo screamed across the meadow and exploded in a resounding boom.  
  
Again the suit checked the bodies, "Two Enhanced gue'las dead". Tao muttered praise to the Ethereals for such luck. The superhuman 'Space Marines' were possibly the toughest opponent they had faced in the Tau expansion campaign. The blue warriors in their tank-like 'ceramite' armor could run faster, aim better and kill more mercilessly than normal humans, but the 'Warriors of Ultramar', as they often referred to themselves, as could not stand in the way of the Greater Good.  
  
Tao moved into the next sector. A team of 2 Crisis suits and a 5 strong Pathfinder team, mounted in a devilfish, supported his sweep. There was also a Broadside Team to call for fire support and finally a 8 strong squadron of Gun Drones. Tao's own Gun Drones were safely attached to his suit's back, looking for the entire world like two frisbees with antenna.  
  
Like all suits Tao's was built with three hard points. He had a missile pod, plasma rifle and a multi-tracker. He also had a Drone Controller hard-wired into his warrior jewelry. The drones were bound to the controller.  
  
"Shas'vre Tao, move south to point oh-36 by 943" said the command dispatcher. "What's the situation, Kor'ui?" Tao said as he hovered toward the coordinates. "A supply convoy mounted on armoured Devilfishes are being hit by a gue'la strike force. We underestimated them, 2 groups of ten strong with a 'Chimera' APC". "Are they normal,...guardsmen, or enhanced,...Marines". "Normal thankfully, go get 'em". "10-4, Over and Out". Tao said the last bit in human, Gothic as they called it, so harsh on the tongue with it's hard words, no grace or flow.  
  
Tao moved the suit toward the co-ordinates, praying that he got there in time. He hated being a pivotal element in his hunter cadre, not that he didn't like defending his, the, their, glorious empire, he just didn't like the responsibility. 


	3. Private Jenkins of the 53rd Armored Fist...

[First person perspective of Private Jenkins]  
  
{53rd Armored Fist Platoon}  
  
I looked across the Chimera to my Sergeant, Sergeant Blackrock. That man was as hard as adamantite and cold as space, but he was a damn good officer. He lead us, the 53rd Armored Fist Squad or 'Rock's Raiders' proudly and we in turn would proudly, and unhesitatingly, follow him into the depths of Hell.  
  
Which was just what we were about to do.  
  
I took apart my Lasgun and rebuilt it, putting in a fresh energy cell. I was nervous. We all were. If we had been fighting Orks we wouldn't worry, the only things that could open our APC would be a 'rokkit', which misses more than half the time or a walking tin can. These were Tau and we had seen what their infamous 'railguns' could do.  
  
Here's our story. The Tau are expanding and the Imperium doesn't like it, so they send their finest cannon fodder, us, down to stop them from taking this world. Now the weird thing is the Tau didn't want to fight. They sent ambassador's to negotiate peace. We, or I should say they...the Xenophobic Inquisition...executed them on the spot. We were always taught to think that they were evil and we were there to purge them, strange...  
  
Anyway, we do what we are told, that's the story of our lives. So the 'Morning Glory' and the 'Glory of the Rising Sun', two sister ships, were descending into orbit. The Tau had railgun emplacements ready. Now these aren't those 'light' railguns their 'Broadside' suits mount. Oh no, these were heavy railguns. A twin linked emplacement, 8 heavy railguns in all destroyed the 'Glory of the Rising Sun'. The Glory was nearly instantly transformed into a pile of wreckage. I don't know the exact figures but at least 25 Adeptus Astartes, Space Marines, and 8 full Platoons of guardsmen in our detachment all died. No survivors.  
  
(A/N: Now those of you who don't play Warhammer 40K, you probably don't know what a railgun is. Well it's a linear anti-material munitions based weapon. The railgun speeds a metal slug to hypervelocity and sends it zooming off. In short it's the best weapon in the game.)  
  
The Chimera slowed to a halt and the back ramp opened up. "All right grunts, this is where we get off" said the Sarge. The 8 other troops piled out followed by the Sarge and I. "Form ranks and sweep east" he said in that casual tone he used with us. "Sir! Yes, Sir!"  
  
------------------  
  
Me: I kinda get the name: Warhammer, but why does it have a 40,000 after it?  
  
Friend at Gaming Club: Because that's how much money you can easily drop collecting it.  
  
------------------- 


	4. Detected

[3rd person account of Tao Koa]  
  
Tao's suit's sensors sweeped the area again. Tao sighed, 'Looks like I won't be seeing any action today' he thought. He looked back to his scanner. Nothing, Nothing, Noth, wait! A tank and infantry covering ground west of his position. "Kor'ui controller?" he said into his communicator unit trying to reach his command dispatcher. "Yes, Shas'vre Tao?" the controller said back. "I have a light tank, 'Chimera' variant and at least 10 troops on the west flank at co-ordinates 130 by 3-oh-6". "I read you, sending in 2 Crisis suits and the pathfinder team, the Broadsides are primed to fire if they can designate a target". "Copy that, over and out".  
  
Finally, action. Tao flipped a few switches in his suit and hovered backwards into a building, waiting for the Imperials to pass by. The plasma rifle began to hum quietly as it charged up. "Shas'vre Kao?" another voice hailed him over his comm. "Yes, this is Shas'vre Kao. I'm in the building at 130 by 3-oh-6" he answered. "Understood. This is Pathfinder Shas'ui Koron, my team has marked the tank" Koron responded. "Understood" Tao replied. Tao changed channels. "Crisis team 36 do you copy?" he asked. "We copy Shas'vre" the Shas'vre of the team said. "Shas'vre an Imperial tank and ten gue'las have been sighted at the coordinates 130 by 3-oh-6. Pathfinder Shas'ui Koron and his team require assistance dealing with them. I am needed elsewhere" he stated. "Understood" the Shas'vre replied.  
  
Tao jetted away from the building and toward the convoy as quickly as possible. He was hoping to see this 'Chimera', too bad. 


	5. Ambushed

[Private Jenkins 1st Person]  
  
We walked through the jungle without noise or any commotion. The Chimera was waiting back at the edge of the forest since we were just supposed to scout then come back. As we turned back to get back to the Chimera all hell broke loose. First the Chimera exploded, even though we didn't see it we were 100% sure that it was a railgun. Our lasguns were into our hands instantly, we lowered our stances, making our selves less of a target. A commanding voice yelled out "Lay down your arms and you shall be spared" in fragmented Gothic. The Sarge responded by throwing a frag toward the voice and yelling "Death to the Xenos!"  
  
Sergeant Blackrock was about to make another statement when he saw the red dot on his heart. 4 other dots joined it quickly. "We said lay down your arms gue'la. We shall not repeat ourselves again. 3" the voice said. A few of the younger guardsmen dropped their guns and fell to their knees with their hands in the air. "2" the voice counted. My hand trembled; I didn't want to die, what about Linda, back home on Auraxis. "1" the voice said sounding grim. My hand opened and the lasgun clattered to the leaf strewn ground. "I am sorry, but you did not comply" the voice said. There was a loud noise; it deafened me for a second for I was close to the Sergeant. The sergeant was on the ground and not moving.  
  
All of us were frozen. He had died. The Tau dropped out of the trees. The trees, of course, they wouldn't hide on the ground. That's why the frag grenade didn't work. Waving their stubby pulse carbines back and forth, and scanning their eyes, hidden behind the streamlined helmets, the aliens picked the lasguns off the ground and aimed at us. "There is nothing to fear. We will not kill you or torture you," the leader said. One guardsman drew his knife and rushed the lead Pathfinder. "Die Xenos" he screamed as he neared the Tau scout. Before the Tau could aim at him, his head exploded, coating the scout in human gore.  
  
A massive machine stepped out of the trees behind us. "About time you showed up Shas'vre," the scout said. "Yeah, we were 'engaged' by gue'las on the way. Are these the ones you took care of?" he asked. They were probably talking in Gothic for our benefit. The scout muttered something in Tau I didn't understand and the suit replied in their language. We had been taken prisoner by the enemy. For the first time in a long time I prayed to Emperor to have mercy on our souls. 


	6. Through the forest

[3rd Person: Tao Kao]  
  
The Crisis suit moaned as Tao pushed it to it's limits, it had been going as fast as possible (far faster than the battle codes dicated for optimum speed) for nearly an hour. The heat valve was going crazy. Tao pulled back on the throttle and eased it into a shallow pool of water. The water was good for cooling. As soon as the suit had cooled into it's acceptable limits Tao lifted off again. There was no time to spare the convoy couldn't hold out forever. Finally the forest ended and he came to canyon. A small convoy of two devilfishes were passing through it and Imperial guardsmen with a 'Chimera' APC were behind them harassing the devilfishes. Tao brought up the plasma rifle's aiming reticule on his screen and centered it on the tank's tracks. The rifle fired twice in succession, the first shot disapitated before reaching the Chimera while the second shot melted the left track to the gears, effectively immobilizing it.  
  
The guardsmen looked up and fired a barrage of lasers at the suit. A few hit but the standard issue Imperial lasgun wasn't known for it's deadly armor piercing capabilities. Tao returned fire with the missile-pod, the duo slammed into two guardsmen killing them and incapacitating a few around them from the concussion. The other tank aimed it's large caliber barrel at Tao's suit. That was no Chimera, it was a heavy tank! The crisis suit leaped back from the edge as it exploded under Tao. "Kor'ui, I have a heavy tank in the canyon, Leman Russ" Tao said as more blind las-fire zoomed out of the canyon and over the crisis suit. "Understood Shas'vre, I'm patching you through to the Shas'o" the kor'ui controller said. 


	7. Where am I?

Private Jenkins 1st Person  
  
I sat in the back of the massive Tau transport ship, the cuffs around my wrists were very comfortable, but despite their looseness I couldn't figure out how to free myself from them. Two armed guards stood at the doors, their helmets were off, exposing their blue-skinned faces, the gash down their foreheads wasn't incredibly pleasant either. Both tau had their stubby pulse carbines held loosely, loose enough to not seem threatening, but not enough to seem unwatchful.  
  
At the same time the guards regarded the humans with curiosity, wondering where thier nasal cavities where and why they had feet with toes instead of hooves  
  
I took a deep breath and took stock of the situation again. We had been ambushed by the xenos, we had lost our officer, we had lost our weapons, we had been taken prisoner, we had been stowed in a transport and were being taken Emperor-knows-where. The 8 other guardsmen in the squad were talking among themselves, some were crying about loved ones, others were too shocked to do anything but sit. War had strange effects on men. Not the time to get philosophical.  
  
I twisted the cuffs again, trying to squeeze out of it. The guards brought their pulse carbines up to thier chests and I stopped trying to escape. One nodded at me. I wasn't xenophobic, but these xeno were beyond the Emperor's light, all they deserved was to be cleansed. Then I realized I still had my survival knife hidden under my arm (a habit from back in my ganger days), I crawled over to another guardsmen and used his handcuffs to push it out. No explanation was given. With the knife in my hands I sprung to my feet and whipped it at the left xeno.  
  
Their carbines were pointed toward me instantly, one finger from their four-fingered hands on the triggers. The knife buried it self in the left guards chest-plate, less than an inch deep. It stuck out at an odd angle. With obvious restraint the tau warrior didn't shoot me instead he walked up to me and hit me with the butt of his carbine. My world went black.  
  
----  
  
I awoke in a room, strapped to a chair. As my vision focused I noticed amazing works of art engraved into the walls of the room. "They are called fio'sorral" a tau voice said in the perfect Gothic. My head snapped back, I looked across the desk, at the xeno there. It was like the guards except that it had a lighter build and was wearing more gaudy clothes. "I am Por'el Aurl'ni Ores, That is I am from the colony world of Aurl'ni, my caste is por, that's..." Ores said, giving some thought to the translation, "It's water in gue'la, er that's what we call your kind. 'El is my rank, it is 2nd from the top rank, 'O. My name is Ores".  
  
"I am Farracrus Jenkins of the 53rd Vieran Armoured Fist Platoon of the Imperial Guard. Farracrus being my given name, Jenkins is my surname. Armoured Fist is the type of squad, 53rd is which platoon of this type we are. Vieran is our world of origin, Viera and the Imperial Guard is, they are the defenders of humanity, defending them from xenos, heretics and worse." I said proudly.  
  
"So you serve this God-Emperor I've heard so much about?" the Por'el asked. "To death" I responded curtly. "And would you say he is like the guiding force of your race, that with out him you would be lost?" Ores continued. "Yes, he is the benevolent ruler of mankind." I said, not realizing what I was saying to the xeno. "Then we are not so different, see I serve the Tau'va, the guiding light of the Tau race, we strive for it, always approaching but never becoming it. Your kind serve this Emperor, spending your lives fighting for his ideals, and..." the Por'el faltered, he couldn't think of another comparison between the ignorant gue'la Emperor and the glorious tau'va.  
  
"And for serving the Emperor when we die we go to him, our souls are spared the fate of become the playthings of the daemons, who writhe in the miasma-infested void of the warp. That is your fate xenogen." I couldn't stop, a lifetime of Imperial dogma spewed out of me, "WARP TAKE YOU! YOU EMPEROR-CURSED XENOGEN!" I strained against the restraints. The Por'el didn't even look disturbed, "Please calm down or the Por'uis will have to sedate you," it said calmly.  
  
"AVE IMPERATOR!" I screamed, no longer in control of myself. An arm restraint popped out, I lunged for the tau's neck, no longer coherent. I felt a needle enter my arm and I crashed down onto the table. I was quite aware of what was happening, well my mind was still clouded by the Imperial propaganda, but my muscles wouldn't respond.  
  
The Por'el shook it's head sadly and silently left the room. 


End file.
